The invention relates to collar-mounted audible beepers used for dog training, wherein the beepers produce predetermined audible sounds that enable a trainer or hunter to be aware of the location and movement of the dog(s) on which such a beeper is mounted, and more particularly to improvements which increase reliability of collar-mounted beepers and which also enable them to emit realistic natural sounds, such as the sound of a hawk screeching.
One of the assignee""s prior products, the Tritronics BC 12 Beeper Collar 20 shown in FIG. 6, includes a collar 3 supporting a horn 50 attached to a top portion of the collar 3 and a housing 21 attached to the bottom portion of the collar. The horn 50 includes a quarter watt speaker (not shown) and directs the sound upwardly out of the opening 50A, so the emitted sound is directed away from the ears of the dog wearing the collar 3, so as not to distract it. The housing 21 contains the electronic circuitry and batteries which accomplish the operation that provides the beeping operation. The device 20 is a lightweight, battery-powered device designed for use with a dog working in heavy brush or other conditions were in the dog is out of sight or difficult to see. The BC 12 Beeper Collar 20 produces audible beeping sounds which indicate whether a dog is in a xe2x80x9crange/pointxe2x80x9d mode or a xe2x80x9cpointxe2x80x9d mode. In the range/point mode, the beeper unit beeps every five seconds while the dog is moving, and beeps once per second while the dog is stationary. If the beeper unit is set in the point mode, the beeper unit is silent until the dog stops moving, and then beeps once per second. The BC 12 Beeper Collar 20 has the capability of producing two different beeping patterns, to indicate whether the dog wearing it is a first dog or a second dog, by setting the beeper unit 20 to produce a first kind of beeping sound or a second kind of beeping sound, respectively. The Tritronics BC 12 and other prior beeper units include a collar-mounted housing positioned at the back of the dog""s neck, which is counterbalanced by a rather heavy circuit/battery unit attached to the collar beneath the dog""s neck and connected by wires woven through the collar to the speaker in the collar-mounted housing positioned at the back of the dog""s neck. The housing 21 contains the operative electronic circuitry of the beeper unit 20 and the large, heavy batteries required to power of the circuitry and drive the quarter watt speaker. A xe2x80x9chornxe2x80x9d 50 and speaker therein are mounted on top of the housing 21.
The horns of this and other prior beeper units typically have been 2 to 3 inches in height, and often are broken off of the beeper units when the dog runs through heavy brush or the like. The prior collar-mounted beeper units have used speakers, which necessitates the use of high-power circuitry and large batteries, and hence large size and weight of the circuit/battery unit 21 in the need to locate it on the portion of the collar below the dog neck and the need to route wires to the speaker in horn 50. Breakage of the speaker wires has been a problem of the BC12 device.
Another of the assignee""s prior products, the xe2x80x9cTritronics Accessory Beeperxe2x80x9d, is designated by reference numeral 20A in FIG. 7. It differs from the beeper unit 20 shown in FIG. 6 in that the horn 53 in FIG. 7 attached to the top of the housing 52 includes a piezoelectric transducer instead of a speaker, and also includes the circuitry and battery, eliminating the need for the speaker wires mentioned above in the BC12 device. The height of horn 53 is one inch, which is substantially shorter than the horn 50 in FIG. 6. The beeper unit 1A of FIG. 7 can be mounted on an upper portion of a collar 3 which supports a circuit/stimulus unit (not shown) mounted on a lower portion thereof.
Yet another of the assignee""s prior products, it""s UPLAND SPECIAL dog training product, includes a stimulus/receiver unit, a remote transmitter, and a beeper unit similar to the above described Accessory Beeper 20A but having the additional capability of allowing the remote transmitter to remotely turn the beeper unit on and off.
Another prior collar-mounted beeper unit (commercially available from Lovett""s Electronics of St. Brazil, Ind.) produces a hawk screeching sound which is a poor representation of an actual hawk screeching sound. That unit repetitively switches the power to the sound-producing circuit on and off, repetitively charging up internal capacitance and discharging it through the sound-producing circuit in order to produce the hawk screeching sound. (A hawk screeching sound feature is desirable because hawks are predators, and a sufficiently realistic hawk screeching sound tends to cause some game birds to xe2x80x9cfreezexe2x80x9d. This allows a trained hunting dog an opportunity to approach the birds and deliberately flush them out, giving the hunter a good opportunity to aim and shoot. Also, the hawk screeching sound is considered by some to be more pleasant than the beeping sound usually associated with prior collar-mounted beeper units.)
U.S. Pat. No. 4,399,432 issued Aug. 16, 1983 to Lunn discloses a beeper unit for use as an aid in locating a hunting dog and providing audible information as to whether the dog is moving or stationary. The electronic circuitry includes mercury switches responsive to movement of the dog so as to cause the beeper unit to produce different audio signals when the dog is moving and when it is stationary.
Thus, there is an unmet need for an improved collar-mounted audible beeper unit which solves the above described problems of the closest prior art devices. There also is a need for a low-cost way of creating realistic sounds including high-frequency components, such as a hawk scream, which does not require a large amount of memory, wherein the high-frequency components are compatible with a piezoelectric transducer.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide an improved collar-mounted beeper unit which overcomes the foregoing problems of the prior art.
It is another object of the invention to provide an improved, realistic-sound-producing algorithm and circuitry for use in an animal training device.
It is another object of the invention to provide a collar-mounted beeper unit which provides a more realistic hawk screeching sound or the like than has been achievable in the prior art.
It is another object of the invention to provide a device and technique which provides a realistic replication of a pre-recorded sound while avoiding the problems associated with prior wavelength file techniques.
It is another object of the invention to provide a collar-mounted beeper unit and technique which provides a realistic replication of a pre-recorded sound while avoiding the problems associated with harmonic resonance points of the piezoelectric transducer encountered by prior wavelength file techniques.
It is another object of the invention to provide a more reliable, less expensive collar-mounted beeper unit than has been accomplished in the prior art.
It is another object of the invention to provide an improved collar-mounted beeper unit without using a flyback transformer.
It is another object of the invention to provide a reliable, inexpensive collar-mounted beeper unit which produces sound with the quality of a speaker, but without requiring the power consumption of a speaker and not having the poor sound quality of prior beeper units utilizing piezoelectric sound transducers.
Briefly described, and in accordance with one embodiment thereof, the invention provides a collar-mounted animal training device including a housing (2) supported by a collar (3). A piezoelectric transducer device (6) is attached to the housing (2). The piezoelectric transducer device (6) includes a piezoelectric transducer (6C) and a mylar cone acoustic element (6B) having a base portion connected to the piezoelectric transducer (6C). A transducer housing (5) for enclosing the piezoelectric transducer device (6) includes a hollow cylindrical section (5A) having an upper edge portion supporting an annular peripheral portion (6A) of the mylar cone acoustic element (6A) of the mylar cone acoustic element (6B) and a cover (5B) attached to cover the cylindrical section (5A). The cover has an opening (5C) surrounded by an annular portion 10 which clamps the annular peripheral portion (6A) of the mylar cone acoustic element (6B) between the cover (5B) and the upper edge of the cylindrical section (5A). A circuit (30) enclosed within the housing (2) includes first and second terminals connected to a first terminal (10A) and a second terminal (10B) of the piezoelectric transducer (6C), the circuit (30) being configured to produce drive signals causing the piezoelectric transducer device (6) to emit a predetermined sound. The circuit (30) includes a microcontroller (31), a voltage booster circuit (34), and driver circuitry (35,36), the microcontroller (31) having a control output (33) coupled to a control input of the voltage booster circuit (34). The voltage booster circuit is powered by a battery voltage (VBATT) and operates to produce a boosted battery voltage (VBOOSTED) when the voltage booster circuit (34) is enabled by the control output (33) of the microcontroller (31). The microcontroller (31) also produces an output signal (32) applied as an input to the driver circuitry (35,36) and the driver circuitry produces an output signal applied to a terminal (10A) of the mylar cone piezoelectric device (6). In the described embodiment, the driver circuit (35,36) includes a high side driver circuit (35) receiving the output signal (32) of the microcontroller (31) as an input and producing an output signal referenced to the boosted battery voltage on the terminal (10A) of the mylar cone piezoelectric transducer device (6). The driver circuit (35,36) also includes a low side driver circuit (36) operative in response to the control signal to produce an output on the terminal (10A) of the mylar cone piezoelectric transducer device (6). The microcontroller (31) includes a memory adapted to store data representative of an animal sound and a program configured to produce the control signal (32) so as to cause the mylar cone piezoelectric device (6) to provide a realistic reproduction of the animal sound. In the described embodiment, the program is configured to cause the microcontroller (31) to store data representing the animal sound in the form of a plurality of sequential segments, each segment including at least one start frequency and one corresponding to stop frequency and to store the duration for that segment, and wherein the program is also configured to cause the microcontroller (31) to sequentially produce a plurality of output signals having start frequencies and end frequencies and durations determined by stored data corresponding to that segment corresponding to the plurality of sequential segments.
In another described embodiment, the invention provides a sound producing device including a piezoelectric transducer device (6) attached to a mylar cone acoustic element mounted in a transducer housing (5) configured as a resonant sound port, a microcontroller (31), a voltage booster circuit (34) coupled to the microcontroller, and driver circuitry coupled to the booster circuit and the microcontroller for producing boosted sound signals to the piezoelectric device (6). An algorithm and data are stored in the microcontroller. The data represents a plurality of sequential sound segments each having a start time and stop time and a start frequency and stop frequency such that the microcontroller produces a plurality of sequential output signals as an input to the driver circuit. The sequential output signals each have corresponding start times and stop times and start frequencies and stop frequencies, causing the driver circuit and the piezoelectric transducer device to sequentially generate sounds having the corresponding stored start times, stop times, and frequencies.
In another embodiment, the invention provides a sound producing device in technique wherein an algorithm and data are stored in a memory associated with a processor. The data represents a plurality of sequential sound segments each having a start time and stop time and a start frequency and stop frequency such that the processor produces a plurality of sequential output signals as an input to the driver circuit. The sequential output signals each have corresponding start times and stop times and start frequencies and stop frequencies, causing a sound transducer device to sequentially generate sounds having the corresponding stored start times, stop times, and frequencies during the durations of the various segments, respectively.